TRAINING & EDUCATION FEATURE
Professionals in education
Joanna “Jo” Yuen, National Barista Trainer at Nestlé Professional talks about the company’s expanding virtual customer educational program and the importance of a hands-on touch.
Joanna “Jo” Yuen is the National Barista Trainer at Nestlé Professional.
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ccording to the International Coffee Organization, world coffee consumption has grown from 120.4 million bags in 2006 to a staggering 167.26 million bags in 2021. “Global consumption, however, isn’t the only thing that has changed in the coffee industry over the past 15 years,” says Joanna “Jo” Yuen, National Barista Trainer at Nestlé Professional. “When I started as a barista 15 years ago, the attitude with coffee education was ‘just go with the flow and as long as the coffee looks okay, people can’t tell the difference’,” says Jo. “Some café operators actually believed coffee tasted
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better after being refrigerated.” She says these days are long gone, with the average consumer more knowledgeable about coffee bean quality, flavour, and origin. “Customers have higher expectations for their daily cup of coffee, which means that baristas have to constantly be refining their offerings and skills,” says Jo. To aid this constant development is Nestlé Professional’s three-module coffee training course catering to basic to advanced barista skills. “Each session covers both the conceptual and practical aspects of coffee. For example, we teach the complete bean to cup journey and key trends within the coffee landscape,” says Jo.
“In terms of practical coffee making skills, we look at how to deliver a consistently great cup of coffee through teaching extraction standards, different brewing methods, best milk texturing techniques, latte art, and more.” The program includes a sensory training module, which focuses on how the post-harvest process develops and influences the end flavour of coffee, and how to identify some of its 850 aromatic flavours. Attendees can come back, retake courses, or expand into new skill levels, with students earning a certificate upon completion of the three modules. “We provide this to any of our customers who want to expand their skills as part of our drive to best support our customer’s businesses. Pre-COVID I even used to fly to our customers’ sites to deliver the training, as we believe customers learn best in their own environment,” says Jo. “I love teaching coffee and being able to share my knowledge and passion with budding baristas. These people I’m training will be the next generation of coffee leaders and knowing that I helped by imparting some of my passion and skill to them is extremely rewarding.” This training, along with additional webinars, is also provided to the Nestlé Professional in-house team, covering the key coffee bean brands, The Roaster Guy, Buondi, and Nescafé. This ensures every level of the organisation has a thorough understanding of its coffee products, source of origin and sustainability certification. “Especially when New South Wales was in lockdown, I worked closely with the wider Nestlé Professional state beverage and commercial teams to ensure that they received the same education. This meant that they could then successfully deliver the training to our customers in non-lockdown states,” says Jo.
